robm

Your car's crummy fuel consumption and gutless behaviour on hills sounds a lot like a timing belt problem. The passenger side cam sprocket could be one tooth off and it will behave like this. I drove mine for >1000 km before I figured it out. Just for fun, what happens if you put the stock tires back on?

A "real" gallon (imperial) is 4.536 liters. A US gallon is 3.785 liters. Whichever, 7.5 km/l is pretty poor. My beastie gets as much as twice that, or better on a good day. All I can think of is to recheck the work done for the tuneup. Are the spark plugs seated correctly, are the wires working, is the cap and rotor in good condition? Is the choke working correctly? Check the ignition timing. This car probably has an old fashioned distributor, that actually has vacuum and centrifugal advance. Check that they work properly. Any leaky fuel lines, or fuel tank? Good luck.

To get 10-15 MPG better than what you have right now: 1. Convert to SPFI 2. Crank up the timing to 23-24 deg. 3. Install a cruise control 4. Drive at 55 mph. 5. Drive ONLY on the highway. No magic carburettor, just good maintenance and driving very conservatively give the best results.

What is the HTHS? From what you say, that less VII compounds are needed for synthetics, then a synthetic would behave better - assuming the VII's crap out the same way. Also assuming the base stock has sufficient viscosity to keep the bearing happy. A 0W- ?? may not be the best for a given engine. The VII's work by increasing the apparent viscosity at high temperature, I believe, not by reducing it at low, so the "cold" number is the one that the bearing would experience. It would be instructive to see teh actual viscosities of the oil, niot just the ratings. There is a range of viscosities that classif y an oil as "10W","30" or whatever, and there can be considerable variation. Any one out there have an idea where this info can be found?

Multiviscosity dino oils, say a 10W-30, look like 10W oil at low temp. and 30 at high temp. to a viscosimeter, not to a bearing. In a bearing, where there is shearing action, the VI improvers don't do anything, and the oil behaves more like its low temperature viscosity index. (A classic viscosimeter is just a cup with a hole in the bottom. Low viscosiity oils drain out quicker.) That is why 5W-30 is not recommended for high speeds and high temperatures. Once it hits the bearing, it is really more like a 5W oil, and at high temperature, the viscosity of this oil is not enough to keep the bearing happy. The oil pressure will look good, but that is because the VI improvers in the oil are work while it is being pumped through the oil system. It is just at the bearing, where it really counts, that they stop working. Synthetic oils may be different. I have not seen any information on the action of wide range synthetic oils under shear. I have often thought that straight 30 oil, with a sump heater to improve cold weather pumping, would be the best compromise between bearing longevity and fuel economy. A study done on cabs in New York showed using this oil reduced engine wear compared to multigrade. Higher viscosity oils (straight 40 and 50) reduced wear even more, but there was a noticeable fuel economy penalty. However, modern vehicles seem to be designed for 10W-30, this grade of oil is the least expensive available, and the older Subarus run very nicely on it for at least 300,000 km, so that is what I use. A block heater in the winter improves startability when the temperature gets below -10 deg. C

You folks in Oz have deer as well as kangaroos to contend with? Beats heck out of hitting a moose. If you ever see a darker patch of black in front of you when driving at night, slow down, it is probably a moose...

Vise grips and a hammer. With any luck, it won't do as much damage as a 12 pt combination wrench slipping on the hex of the plug. To prevent this, change the crush washer. They last for about 3 oil changes before they get too flat to seal, and then the torque requirements on the plug get so high that it becomes way too much work to remove.

That low voltage could indicate the problem No 5 V, no injection. Or it could be working perfectly, and the low voltage due to a "slow" voltmeter, it doesn't get up to reading 5 V before it drops again, so it gives you an "average" of 3.X volts. Is there evidence of injection occurring? Smell of gas in the intake or exhaust? Could you drip a bit of gas or spray some starter fluid into the intake, to see if it fires? I am not sure how to fool the MAF while doing this. FI makes some things easier, some harder...

Hidden Hitch make one for the Loyale. It bolts to the tiedown hook mounts and also to the sockets that the bumper plugs into. The bumper socket is pretty close to a frame, it is 1/4" thick square steel tube. You are supposed to remove the tiedown hooks, but the bolts are long enough to bolt down both them and the hitch. Goes on pretty fast, it took me about 2-1/2 hours, with a hangover! The bumper has to come off, but that is an easy job.

Both Canadian Tire and NAPA have them. CT's are cheaper, but they are the original outer CV joint, you have to hammer them in and out. NAPA's are about $30 more expensive, but have a new outer CV joint that is only a slip fit into the bearings, just like most of the rest of the CV joints in all the other cars in the world. If it is good enough for a Toyota.... The slip-fit joint saves a lot of time and fuss. Worth the extra $, IMO. Note that this is NAPA Canada I am talking about. I have no idea what NAPA in the US is selling.

But you still need the studs to hold the pulley on to the hub of the water pump.

That is one strange graph. Have you really plotted RPM vs time? If so, how do you read it? Have you actually plotted % vs RPM? That would make more sense, I think.

How about the vacuum advance? Is it connected at both ends, and is it still working? Check that if you suck on the hose, and plug it with your tongue (yes, this does taste bad, but a new, clean vacuum hose helps) the distributor moves, and stays there. Check for leaks and cracks in the hose. The vacuum line could be connected to either tha manifold or the carb, so that could be what got knocked loose.

It always blows me away, how many folks seem to survive really horrible accidents in these beasties. The occupants survive, the cars don't seem to do quite as well... Given how many are on this list, and how crazy some of them are, it is pretty amazing we don't have RIP's for members, just their vehicles. A friend of mine rolled her Loyale wagon off an embankment on a winter road. She says the tierod broke or something, apparently a problem with thes Subarus (?? Not that anyone else has noticed!) but she walked away from it with shock and bruises.

Is the choke working properly? Is the timing set correctly? Did you change tires (snowies) at the same time? I just went over to snowies, and lost about 50-100 km/tank. Cold weather, wet roads, and maybe winter gas don't help either.

1/4 of the way is about right for my '93 at this time of year, or even most times of year. It might hit 1/3 in the summer, at the top of a long hill. There should be a good blast of heat from the heating system, though. Put it on vent, and full heat, it should be good and hot.

No, it wasn't a production engine, but it was probably the source of the rumours about a Subaru diesel. UBC is also doing some cool stuff with engine fueling systems. Stratified charge diesel, running off methane, with just enough diesel fuel squirted in at just the right time to ignite the methane, and now dual injection systems, injecting both methane and diesel near TDC, all with a view to come up with a really efficient and practical hydrogen engine. This is mostly applicable for big engines, like bus up to ferry size, but this technology could make its way down the scale to the car size engines.

Are those dual Hitachi 2 barrel carbs in those photos?

Was he "street racing"? This is Edmonton, remember, in the middle of the bald prairie. He may well have been on an 80 km/h rural backroad, paved, straight, level, no trees, no traffic, and if there are any side roads, you can see the other traffic for miles. If that was the case, he wasn't being smart, but probably wasn't being totally irresponsible either. I suspect the cop thought the same, or else the punishment would have been a lot larger, involving "dangerous driving", not just speeding, and license suspension, not just a fine. ("DD" is 30 km/h over here in B.C, may be different in Alberta.) If this was around town, on one of the local connector highways, he was being an idiot, begging to be caught, and dead lucky to get away with just a fine.

http://vri.etec.wwu.edu/history.htm They mention developing a Subaru diesel for one of their contest vehicles. I believe this is the same outfit that was involved with developing the EA-82, and was responsible for a remarkable RX that is still kicking around somwhere.

Did you have to adjust the ignition timing when you checked it? If so, then it is the left (driver's side) belt. If not, then that belt is good, and it is the right belt. One tooth off, probably. It is pretty easy to accidentally move it just a bit when prying the belt onto the crank sprocket. Also, parallax makes it a bit harder to see that one, as the mark on the cam is actually sticking out from the notch on the belt cover. Looking down on it from above, it is harder to line up than the driver's side, that is inset from the cover.

dcdmcl wrote: "Checked timing too, its dead on. well, 20 degres plus 2 btdc at 700 rpm." A little extra advance improves MPG, I have foound. I am runnng mine at 23 deg., and can get over 15 km/liter on the highway! That is about 35 USMPG. Cold weather and snow knock it back quite a bit, though.

I had a good look around the area, and could not find anything like an existing drain. My old Corolla did this too, but it had drains in these pockets behind the wheelwells. They had to be cleaned out at least once a month in the wet season. The right side has had a tough life ( 2 severe parking lot mishaps, about $2k each time!), so maybe it had one and it went away in the course of bodywork and re-undercoating? I didn't look too closely at the other side, it was dark over there.

SvRex wrote: "The majority of small cars that have a history with V-8 swaps begin life as RWD cars. Datsun Z's, RX-7's, Midgets, Miatas are all RWD, and none of them have IRS." Not quite true. The Datsuns have IRS, and use the R180 diff, the "big brother" to the R160 on the Subaru. I am not sure if they kept it when swapping in a V8 or not though. Miatas, too, have IRS. Only first gen. RX-7's were beam axle.

I was checking my brakes last night, and noticed the car was sloshing as I backed it in the garage. It turns out there was a lot of water down the wells behind the rear wheels, under the jack/tool kit on the left side, and the same area on the right. How does the water get in here? Is there supposed to be a drain to let it out? I drilled a hole in each side to drain them. At least 2 liters of water poured out of each side. Then I stuck a piece of stainless wire into the hole, crimped so it won't fall out, in the hope that the wire will rattle around and keep the hole from getting plugged with road muck. Any comments on this fix?